Pravasi Bharatiya Divas: Government to Promote Investments in Suburbs around Bengaluru

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas: Government to Promote Investments in Suburbs around Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Karnataka will promote industrial suburbs around Bengaluru for potential investments from the Indian diaspora during the three-day Pravasi Bharatya Divas (PBD), beginning Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will open the event on Sunday which will focus on the theme, “Redefining Engagem,ent with the Indian Diaspora.”

“Bengaluru is overloaded with investments, and we want to encourage investments in industrial suburbs such as Harohalli, Vemagal and Vasanthanarasapura. We have created infrastructure for investments in a radius of 50 km from Bengaluru,” Karnataka’s Industries and Infrastructure Minister R.V.Deshpande told ET.

The government, the Minister said, has organised visits to these suburbs for the NRIs and persons of Indian origin (PIOs) if they are interested. They will also be encouraged to see software hubs like Whitefield and Electronic city.

More than 4000 delegates have registered for the event. “We are expecting delegates from more than 63 countries. And, this is an opportunity for the members of the Indian diaspora to express the issues they are facing, and offer their insights and suggestions. We want to reconnect the young members of the diaspora to their Indian roots,” the Minister said.

“We see this as an opportunity for Karnataka to show our strengths in sectors such as aerospace, IT and startups to the NRIs coming from all over the world. This is, of course, not a convention for investments. However, if an NRI wants to invest, we will welcome them with red carpet,” Deshpande said.

Regional Passport Officer P.S.Karthigeyan, who is coordinating on behalf of the External Affairs Ministry, added that the government has extended the delegate registrations up to January 7. “Teh RPO office at Koramangala has set up a centre at its premises where it will start giving badges to registered delegates from Thursday. The Centre will also move to the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) on January 7,” he said.